SERAP Excited As NBA Withdraws El-Rufai's Invitation

Several human rights advocates, including the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, hailed the Nigerian Bar Association for withdrawing its invitation to Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, who was scheduled to speak at its Annual General Conference next week.

The NBA in a tweet on Thursday said it had decided to remove El-Rufai from the list of its speakers, adding that the decision would be communicated to the governor.

The tweet read, “The National Executive Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association at its ongoing meeting resolves that the invitation to the Kaduna State Governor, H.E. Nasir El-Rufai by the 2020 Annual General Conference Planning Committee be withdrawn and the decision communicated to the governor.”

A petition to stop the governor from attending the conference, which was started by a lawyer, Usani Odum, had garnered over 3,400 signatures on Change.Org as of 6 pm on Thursday.

In a separate letter titled, ‘Request to Withdraw the Offer of Platform at the 2020 Annual General Conference of the NBA to Mallam Nasir El-Rufai’, addressed to the Chairman, Technical Committee on Conference Planning, NBA, Prof Koyinsola Ajayi, some lawyers said the governor must not be allowed to speak at the conference.

The letter, which was signed by Silas Onu and Auta Nyada, listed 10 allegations against El-Rufai and his son, Bello, who is a Special Adviser to Kaduna Central lawmaker, Senator Uba Sani.

They faulted the NBA for inviting El-Rufai citing his poor human rights record and his inability to stop the killings particularly in Southern Kaduna.